the (un)offensive gospel of Jesus

Who is the Jesus we show? What is the Story we tell?

These honest questions sit at the heart of this punchy, provocative book. Throughout his debut title, Jeremy Bouma seeks to drive a conversation within the American Church about how she is showing Jesus and telling his hopeful Story because America’s culture is progressively skipping toward post-Christendom. Many Americans are increasingly disinterested in Jesus, skeptical of his followers, and ambivalent toward his good, hopeful message.

Why is this the case? If Jesus and his message are what people have been waiting for their whole life, why are so many people leaving and avoiding him, his community, and Story? Who is the Jesus people are seeing? What is the Story people are hearing? Jeremy seeks to cast a new vision for showing and telling.

“The (un)offensive gospel of Jesus” sketches a fresh portrait of the good Jesus and hopeful gospel found in the Holy Scriptures. Based on his experiences in the American Church, conversations and friendships, studies in theology and the Gospels, and the joy of following Jesus, Jeremy explores how Jesus and his gospel are inherently inspiring, good, and reassuring. More importantly, he reminds the Church that we are responsible for the Jesus we show and the Jesus people see, the Story we tell and the Story people hear. In the end, Jeremy helps us all understand why Jesus and His Story are much more hopeful than many of us think.

ENDORSEMENTS:

“Jeremy is a deep thinker; he’s courageous enough to challenge some popular evangelicals and emergents today. Yet, this is not a screed: Jeremy loves the Church and has a passion for the ostracized and he tells us in this book that grace grinding is the not the way of Jesus and it is not the gospel Jesus preached.”
—Scot McKnight • Professor, North Park University; Author, THE JESUS CREED and THE BLUE PARAKEET

“Jeremy had me at the title. With deep passion for the Church, a sharp awareness of the prevalent, hot, future-shaping emerging conversation, and the courage to slay a few sacred cows, he offers a compelling vision of Jesus and the Church’s mission. Jeremy’s debut book informs, disturbs, encourages, and challenges. Who is the Jesus we show to the world? What is the Story we tell? These two questions will never be the same for me.”
—John W. Frye • Pastor, Fellowship Covenant Church; Grand Rapids, MI; Author, JESUS THE PASTOR and OUT OF PRINT

“While recognizing our fallen world with failing followers of Jesus, Jeremy paints a brilliant, honest, passionate and redeeming picture of the Christ who heals, speaks with authority and still changes the impossible. As we step back and gaze at this amazing portrait of a liberating magnetic Jesus I find good news, an (un)offensive Jesus, to whom I have too often shamefully been offensive.”
—Doug Fagerstrom • Former President, Grand Rapids Theological Seminary